The Acorn: No Ghost

If one day it was revealed that half the Bella Union roster actually comprised a single collective of musicians, working under myriad guises, it wouldn't be a great surprise. For every startling release by an individual talent (Laura Veirs, say, or John Grant), there are umpteen that conform to a template: guitar-led music that is lavishly textured, sometimes delicate, sometimes squally, decorated by flute or trumpets or strings, with moments of loveliness, but mostly pretty earnest. No Ghost follows the blueprint exactly. There are no signs here of the musical or narrative adventurousness that leavened its predecessor, 2008's Glory Hope Mountain, which means that nothing, from the Keatsian meditations on autumnal scenes in Slippery When Wet, to the muscle-flexing guitars on I Made the Law, feels like essential listening.